A Midwestern land deal that once dealt a blow to housing discrimination.

I'm David Brancaccio in New York. First, there's news today the Trump administration is thinking about combining and shrinking federal agencies that regulate banking.

That's according to the Wall Street Journal, among parts that could become involved, one that manages the insurance on your bank deposits,

the FDIC.

They are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which protects customer funds in the event

a bank fails.

We saw the agency in action during the mid-sized bank failures in 2023.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog that has been a thorn

on the side of banks and credit issuers for actions such as limiting overdraft and other fees.

And the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is an independent bureau inside the

Treasury Department, it along with the Federal Reserve, supervises banks and

ensures the safety of the overall financial system.

Novo, thank you. Markets, S&P and Dow futures are both down a tenth of a percent.

The big economic datum of the day will be inflation, the Consumer Price Index, covering January.

The headline figure is supposed to come down a notch with year-over-year

inflation dropping slightly to 2.8 percent, which is still higher than the Guardians of Interest

rates want. We shall see. Let's talk about a key marketplace matter.

Who got access to buying a house in America, a foundation of many families' generational wealth or lack thereof?

Today, the first in a series called

unlocking the gates on housing and economic opportunity with Marketplace's special correspondent

Lee Hawkins. We start with a secret nighttime business deal which unlock the gates in one

Minnesota suburb for dozens of black families seeking better schools and safer neighborhoods, including Lee's own family.

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